Aestheticodes

Just started with the Aestheticodes research project led by the University of Nottingham and the Mixed reality Lab. This project has been looking at ways to embed visual recognition codes within decorative patterns rather than in the more standard formats such as QR and RFID tags. Research partners from Central St Martins taught a drawing workshop in which we learnt how to build a figurative or abstract pattern which still adheres to a coding structure readable by the software on a smart phone.

The project has also already involved ceramicists, with designs transfer printed onto plates, which raises new technical issues with shadows and reflections, and creates a need for redundancy in the pattern design so the code is legible in different conditions. A use context has been demonstrated recently at the London Design Festival, in collaboration with restaurant Busaba Eathai.

Nottingham Trent’s involvement will allow the project to continue testing aesthetic coding as part of textile structures, and in particular we will be looking at lace in collaboration with Newstead Abbey.